Each and every single firefighter death is a loss not only to those directly connected with the victim but also in this vanilla brotherhood fire service across the nation. Each one should, as rightly expected, be properly mourned and remembered and when applicable have lessons from the tragedy distributed to the rest of us so that we may learn and the victim does not die in vain. There is a problem that arises with certain causes of death that have, not of their own doing, been given a degree of notariety above others. This is due to the actual incident but in most of these cases as years, anniveraries and related tragedies pass, this is also due to efforts made in challenging the "culture". This is usually done, as you may have seen, by references to data and the push of published articles and online exclusives of how you are doing it wrong and need to completely overhaul your department.

If you haven't noticed by now your favorite fire service magazine, website, training group and trade show are all in the business to make money while delivering information to you. There is nothing wrong with that but when it comes to discussing, seriously, the deaths of firefigters and presenting ideas, education and merchandise to prevent future deaths, you must make sure – as a stakeholder – that what is being pushed is somewhat balanced with the actual data. You may have Ben Franklin's DNA or the DNA of Thomas Jackson ("give them the bayonet!") or George Patton ("the coward is the one who lets fear overcome his sense of duty") but when the devil is in the details you have to ask "is the greatest detail being overlooked?"

Per USFA data to date are the numbers of career and volunteer firefighters killed in vehicle/apparatus crashes in 2013 so far. I complied this after seeing the huge online wringing of hands after the one (1) on-duty death of a firefighter in a vacant building this year. One death, so far, that we should be looking at as progress in reducing that number. Instead, all we see are the usual fear-based reactions pushing for change in tactics, strategy and culture.

But compare that number, the "1", with some other not so popular or maybe "uninteresting" numbers like these below.

Three (3) on-duty deaths involving career firefighters during vehicle operations:

Average age of the volunteer fatalities presented: 34. It isn't just some young kid fresh out of Firefighter I.

The way in which our official on-duty deaths are counted, and life itself, will never allow us to have zero; it is illogical. Instead, we have to ask ourselves and our fire service organizations if we are really focused on doing what we can, giving equal attention, to reducing the larger number of on-duty deaths? They may not have glossy, cool-looking photos or videos to accompany their NIOSH reports but does that make them any less sellable?

10 deaths related to vehicle operations, six involving personally operated vehicles, compared to one death in a vacant building.

Maybe departments should worry more about driving and relying on a pledge and less on what poor bloodline your members have lurking inside themselves.

These 10 victims, their departments and families deserve that from us.

Bill Carey is the online public safety news and blog manager with PennWell Public Safety, or more specifically FireRescue Magazine/FirefighterNation.com, JEMS.com, LawOfficer.com and FireEMSBlogs.com. Bill started in the fire service, as a third generation firefighter in 1986, on the eastern shore of Maryland and then continued after moving to Prince George's County. He served as a volunteer sergeant and lieutenant at Hyattsville where he met Chris Hebert and Dave Ianonne, the creators of Firehouse.com. Bill went to work for them back in 2001 and after they transitioned away to new, bigger projects, he was hired by them again in 2009. Bill's writing has been on Firehouse.com, Fire Engineering, FireRescue Magazine, FirefighterNation.com, the Jones and Bartlett 2010 edition of "Fire Officer: Principles and Practice", The Secret List and Tinhelmet.com.

1 Comment

The other unfortunate issue is , where and how do we track all those members that have died due to cancer long before their time? The issue is definition of a LODD! USFA does not track cancer deaths, and yet if we look at the IAFF LODD website, nearly twice as many members die of cancer than cardiac under the age of 60! My department lost three this year and 6 members were diagnosed with a serious cancer just I within the last month! Don't misunderstand my argument, 1 LODD is too many, but let's start really looking at the REAL number 1 cause of death within the fire service and make appropriate changes!

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Mark J. CotterThe Rescue MindsetDespite being the author of the "unfounded drivel" you quoted in your article, I agree with the core point of your article: that we need to train and be prepared to perform at our maximum at all times, so as to best be able to address whatever situation presents. We can argue about whether a…
2017-11-17 03:07:31